First printing, in its original dust jacket, and very likely the review copy given to one of Hemingway’s preferred critics.
Publisher and Year: New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926
Edition: First edition, first printing, with “stoppped” on p. 181. The other textual errors are present but are irrelevant to identifying the first printing. First-issue dust jacket priced $2.00 and with “In Our Time” misprinted as “In Our Times” on the front panel, without any restoration or repair. (Grissom A61a; Hanneman A6a)
Description and Condition: Octavo, black cloth, gilt labels, 259 pp. A sharp book with clean cloth, bright labels, and secure binding. Ink signature of reviewer Warren Taylor to the front pastedown and title page. Seven pages have a light pencil mark and another page has two; these have been present at least since this copy’s 1967 auction appearance (easily removable but worth preserving). Slight gutter exposure at pp. 105 and 153. Dust jacket is rubbed, toned (especially the spine), a little stained, worn at the edges, and has a couple of pencil marks to the crown and two 1” closed tears to the joints (upper front and lower rear). Housed in the chemise and morocco-backed slipcase from 1967 and mylar.
Provenance: Warren Taylor (1903–1991), a literary critic for The Nashville Tennessean and later a Professor of English at Oberlin College [1]. Taylor was among the earliest champions of Hemingway, authoring a notably favorable review of The Sun Also Rises when its initial reception was mixed [3]. Earlier in 1926, Hemingway read Taylor’s review of In Our Time and wrote to his editor, Maxwell Perkins, to send him a review copy of his upcoming book, The Torrents of Spring [2, 4-7].
This book is very likely the review copy given by the publisher to The Tennessean. Scribner’s review copies of this title were ordinary trade copies with a review slip laid in and had no stamps or physical alterations. Though it lacks a slip, the circumstantial case is clear. The Tennessean reported receipt of a review copy from the publisher in its weekly “Books Received” column on 31 Oct. Review copies were received by the editor and personally distributed to the reviewers, who "got no pay except possession of the book" [8]. The editor received Taylor's review by 29 Nov and published it on 2 Jan [2, 7].
This copy was auctioned by Parke-Benet on 11 Apr 1967 alongside Taylor’s copies of In Our Time and The Torrents of Spring. The latter had a “compliments of the author” slip laid in, apparently lost by the time it resurfaced at Bonhams on 2 Feb 2008.
Hemingway kept clippings of Taylor’s two reviews until his death in 1961, which survive in the JFK Memorial Library.
Notes:
1. Signatures were compared with 1920s samples from Vanderbilt University.
2. 10 Jan 1926. Taylor’s review of In Our Time: “Chiselled Prose Found in Fiction Of Hemingway: Realistic Stories Are Found ‘In Our Time.’”
3. 2 Jan 1927. Taylor’s review of The Sun Also Rises: "‘The Sun Also Rises’ Presents Achievement in Prose Fiction: Ernest Hemingway Portrays Disenchanted Lives of a Lost Generation.”
4. 5 Mar 1926. In a letter, Hemingway says he has read 162 reviews of In Our Time and “the best ones come from the sticks.”
5. 8 Apr 1926. In a letter to Perkins, Hemingway lists reviewers he wants to get review copies of The Torrents of Spring. On 19 Apr, Perkins replies that he will send them.
6. 20 May 1926. In a letter to Perkins, Hemingway expands the reviewer list to include “Warren Tayler [sic] Nashville Tenn. Tennessean.” Next to the list, a Scribner employee adds, “Sent 6/3/26”. Taylor received and ultimately kept the book, but Richard Sedgewick West, Jr. reviewed it instead (25 Jul).
7. 29 Nov 1926. The editor of The Tennessean thanks Taylor for The Sun Also Rises review by mail.
8. Literary Criticism Outside New York. 1931, The Bookman. Editor of The Tennessean describes the operations of the literary page, including distribution of review copies.
9. The cited Hemingway letters are housed in the Scribner’s archives at Princeton University. With the exception of Perkins’ 19 Apr letter to Hemingway, these letters have been published in The Letters of Ernest Hemingway, Volume 3, 1926–1929 (Cambridge University Press, 2015). Clippings of Taylor’s reviews are available in the Newspapers by Ancestry database. The 1967 and 2008 auction records are archived in the Rare Book Hub database. Surviving correspondence between Taylor and the editor of The Tennessean is located at Vanderbilt University.
Inventory ID: 885 - 495 - 467
First printing, in its original dust jacket, and very likely the review copy given to one of Hemingway’s preferred critics.
Publisher and Year: New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926
Edition: First edition, first printing, with “stoppped” on p. 181. The other textual errors are present but are irrelevant to identifying the first printing. First-issue dust jacket priced $2.00 and with “In Our Time” misprinted as “In Our Times” on the front panel, without any restoration or repair. (Grissom A61a; Hanneman A6a)
Description and Condition: Octavo, black cloth, gilt labels, 259 pp. A sharp book with clean cloth, bright labels, and secure binding. Ink signature of reviewer Warren Taylor to the front pastedown and title page. Seven pages have a light pencil mark and another page has two; these have been present at least since this copy’s 1967 auction appearance (easily removable but worth preserving). Slight gutter exposure at pp. 105 and 153. Dust jacket is rubbed, toned (especially the spine), a little stained, worn at the edges, and has a couple of pencil marks to the crown and two 1” closed tears to the joints (upper front and lower rear). Housed in the chemise and morocco-backed slipcase from 1967 and mylar.
Provenance: Warren Taylor (1903–1991), a literary critic for The Nashville Tennessean and later a Professor of English at Oberlin College [1]. Taylor was among the earliest champions of Hemingway, authoring a notably favorable review of The Sun Also Rises when its initial reception was mixed [3]. Earlier in 1926, Hemingway read Taylor’s review of In Our Time and wrote to his editor, Maxwell Perkins, to send him a review copy of his upcoming book, The Torrents of Spring [2, 4-7].
This book is very likely the review copy given by the publisher to The Tennessean. Scribner’s review copies of this title were ordinary trade copies with a review slip laid in and had no stamps or physical alterations. Though it lacks a slip, the circumstantial case is clear. The Tennessean reported receipt of a review copy from the publisher in its weekly “Books Received” column on 31 Oct. Review copies were received by the editor and personally distributed to the reviewers, who "got no pay except possession of the book" [8]. The editor received Taylor's review by 29 Nov and published it on 2 Jan [2, 7].
This copy was auctioned by Parke-Benet on 11 Apr 1967 alongside Taylor’s copies of In Our Time and The Torrents of Spring. The latter had a “compliments of the author” slip laid in, apparently lost by the time it resurfaced at Bonhams on 2 Feb 2008.
Hemingway kept clippings of Taylor’s two reviews until his death in 1961, which survive in the JFK Memorial Library.
Notes:
1. Signatures were compared with 1920s samples from Vanderbilt University.
2. 10 Jan 1926. Taylor’s review of In Our Time: “Chiselled Prose Found in Fiction Of Hemingway: Realistic Stories Are Found ‘In Our Time.’”
3. 2 Jan 1927. Taylor’s review of The Sun Also Rises: "‘The Sun Also Rises’ Presents Achievement in Prose Fiction: Ernest Hemingway Portrays Disenchanted Lives of a Lost Generation.”
4. 5 Mar 1926. In a letter, Hemingway says he has read 162 reviews of In Our Time and “the best ones come from the sticks.”
5. 8 Apr 1926. In a letter to Perkins, Hemingway lists reviewers he wants to get review copies of The Torrents of Spring. On 19 Apr, Perkins replies that he will send them.
6. 20 May 1926. In a letter to Perkins, Hemingway expands the reviewer list to include “Warren Tayler [sic] Nashville Tenn. Tennessean.” Next to the list, a Scribner employee adds, “Sent 6/3/26”. Taylor received and ultimately kept the book, but Richard Sedgewick West, Jr. reviewed it instead (25 Jul).
7. 29 Nov 1926. The editor of The Tennessean thanks Taylor for The Sun Also Rises review by mail.
8. Literary Criticism Outside New York. 1931, The Bookman. Editor of The Tennessean describes the operations of the literary page, including distribution of review copies.
9. The cited Hemingway letters are housed in the Scribner’s archives at Princeton University. With the exception of Perkins’ 19 Apr letter to Hemingway, these letters have been published in The Letters of Ernest Hemingway, Volume 3, 1926–1929 (Cambridge University Press, 2015). Clippings of Taylor’s reviews are available in the Newspapers by Ancestry database. The 1967 and 2008 auction records are archived in the Rare Book Hub database. Surviving correspondence between Taylor and the editor of The Tennessean is located at Vanderbilt University.
Inventory ID: 885 - 495 - 467
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